Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
The present invention relates to a method of collecting and transporting shopping carts and a shopping cart collection vehicle, adapter or device for use in collecting various types of carts, goods carriers, or the like. The vehicle may additionally include hydraulic lifters, lights, a slip clutch, extendable carrying arm, carrying boom, boom support plate, carrying ram, secondary support rod, rear cart retrieval, holding pins, holding bumps, holding nubs, rollbars, windshield, operator weather cover, removable cover, doors, side windows, back window, forklift, and/or the like. In one embodiment of the invention, the apparatus includes a cart trailer with loading tongue, holding pin, trailer hitch, and chain lock connector.
Typically, shopping carts, goods carriers, or the like are used to facilitate the shopping process by allowing a shopper to move throughout a grocery or department store and successively place selected goods in the cart for purchase. Also, shopping carts are used to convey the purchased goods or items to the shopper""s vehicle, automobile, car, truck, or the like. Once the consumer or shopper is done with the cart or other goods carrier, they either leave the cart sitting in the parking lot, place the cart in a temporary storage area in the parking lot, or return the cart to the inside of the grocery or department store.
xe2x80x9cBaggersxe2x80x9d or other store employees must go out into the parking lot and collect the used carts and move them to the store for reuse by new customers or shoppers. Such collection and movement of shopping carts is conventionally done manually and may require a particular store employee to move anywhere from one to one hundred carts from the parking lot to the store. Such manual movement of shopping carts is labor intensive, unsafe, and may lead to damage of the carts and/or their wheels.
Although attempts have been made at devising mechanisms to assist in the movement of large numbers of shopping carts from the parking lot to the store, such devices are usually used to drag or pull large numbers of manually collected and stacked shopping carts from the parking lot to the store.
Shopping cart moving apparatus are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,573,078, 5,439,069, 5,322,306, and 5,082,074.
U.S. Pat. No.5,439,069 to Beeler discloses a nested cart pusher wherein the pusher vehicle latches onto vertical posts at the rear of a shopping cart by means of latch members. The cart pusher then assists a user in pushing a train of nested shopping carts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,306 to Coleman discloses a vehicle for conveying trolleys or carts and the use of a spool and a pair of cables or lines which are respectively coupled at one end to an eyelet on the handle of the device and at another end to an anchoring point, preferably on the end of the lead cart or trolley. By utilizing the cables connected onto the lead of the forwardmost cart or trolley, the Coleman apparatus may be used in either a forward or reverse mode to maneuver the train of shopping carts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,078 to Stringer et al. discloses a steerable, self-powered shopping cart towing apparatus. The Stringer et al. device is a three-wheeled, motorized towing device for affixing to the bottom front crossbar of the frontmost shopping cart in a line of shopping carts. The Stringer et al. device uses a strap reel with a strap and hook to secure a plurality of shopping carts to the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,074 to Fischer discloses a transport vehicle for positioning behind a plurality of shopping carts and that uses a driving wheel and motor to assist the user in relocating the shopping carts. The apparatus has steering yokes or handles with actuating buttons for the mobile drive. The Fischer transport device also includes a hook that can be engaged into the front of a shopping cart to be transported. The hook is connected to the transport vehicle by a cable tensioned by a cable drum. The hook and cable couple the shopping carts firmly to the transport vehicle so that the vehicle can travel in the tractioned direction and can tow the shopping carts behind it.
Weller (German 2,450,292) is directed to a remote controlled fork stacking truck which pushes trolleys back to a shopping center. More particularly, Weller ""692 is directed to a remote controlled forklift truck which collects and pushes a row of trolleys back to the shopping center and has remote control via a cable or radio control. With reference to the figure of Weller ""692, the operator does not sit in the vehicle while the carts are collected and returned to the shopping center, the carts are pushed along the ground, the carts are not raised off the ground by an elongate shopping cart supporting device, and the Weller ""692 remote controlled forklift truck does not have side rails for keeping the carts from tipping from side to side while supported on an elongate shopping cart support device.
The Weller ""692 remote controlled forklift truck suffers from the drawbacks of causing possible harm to the operator standing on the ground, damaging the carts by pushing the carts with their wheels in contact to the parking lot, does not raise the carts up off the ground, does not support each cart on an elongate shopping cart support device, does not include an articulated and/or extendable or retractable shopping cart support device, and the like.
Gerdau et al. (EP 346,292) is directed to a three-wheeled transporter for supermarket trolleys having a pyramid-shaped nose section to locate inside the rearmost trolley. The Gerdau et al. ""308 self-propelled transporter merely pushes the supermarket trolleys along the ground. Gerdau et al. ""308 does not disclose a shopping cart collection vehicle having an elongate shopping cart support device (boom, arm, shaft, or the like) which supports each of the stacked shopping carts, lifts the carts up off the ground during transport, prevents damage to the wheels during transport, prevents the carts from being jammed tightly together, and the like.
Magni ""292 is directed to a self-propelled lift truck for handling palletized loads. Magni ""292 is directed to a forklift for handling palletized loads with a typical fork assembly (8) mounted on the end of a boom (4) adapted to reach into trailers, containers, or trucks having rear access only. Magni ""292 is not directed to a shopping cart collection transport or storage vehicle. Magni ""292 does not disclose an extensible boom adapted to support a plurality of shopping carts thereon with each cart supported on the boom.
Hence, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for collecting, transporting and moving used shopping carts from the parking lot to the store.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a new and improved shopping cart collection vehicle, adapter, and/or device is disclosed for use in collecting, transporting, and/or storing various types of carts, carriers, or the like. The vehicle may include hydraulic lifters, lights, slip clutches, extendable carrying arms, a carrying boom, carrying ram, secondary support rod, rear cart retrieval, holding pins, holding bumps, holding numbs, rollbars, a windshield, operator weather cover, removable cover, doors, side windows, back window, forklift, and/or the like.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a cart trailer includes a floor, side rails, loading ramp, holding pin, trailer hitch, chain lock connector, and the like.
In accordance with the present invention an improved method of collecting shopping carts is disclosed wherein a shopping cart collection vehicle, adapter, or device is used to pick up the shopping carts and return them to the store. In accordance with one embodiment, the collection vehicle includes a multi-wheeled, self-propelled base vehicle adapted for connection to a front lifting and collection system disclosed herein.
In at least one embodiment, the invention is directed to a shopping cart return vehicle for collecting and moving shopping carts in and from parking lot areas of a shopping complex. The shopping cart collection vehicle includes either single or multiple shopping cart storage racks for simultaneously collecting, moving and storing multiple shopping carts. The vehicle includes one or more elongated lifts or booms which raise the shopping carts off the ground so that the wheels of the carts are not damaged or worn and so that the carts are not jammed together and damaged during collection and movement. In the preferred embodiment, the shopping cart collection vehicle is motor-driven and preferably has a rear steerable wheel. The front area of the vehicle serves to collect and store the carts and may either be open or have mesh or solid sides.
A principal object of the present invention is the provision of a shopping cart collection vehicle that is used to easily and safely collect and retrieve the shopping carts left in parking lots by store customers.
Another object of the present invention is a shopping cart collection trailer which can be used as a shopping cart collection area in a parking lot. The full trailer may be replaced with an empty trailer in the parking lot while being emptied. The full trailer and the collected carts contained therein are moved to the store and the carts are emptied therefrom. Thus, the collected carts my be used by future customers, and the empty cart trailer is returned to the parking lot so that customers can return their used shopping carts to a convenient and easily used storage area.
Another object of the present invention is an interchangeable forklift system or adapter to allow a standard forktruck or forklift to be used both as a forktruck and as a shopping cart collection vehicle.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a replaceable, extendable, and/or retractable shopping cart collection arm, lift, or boom to allow for the efficient collection of a number of shopping carts, while being easily driven with a shorter length arm when carts are not being carried.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a shopping cart collection vehicle having a protective rollbar and weather cover for the employee or operator collecting the shopping carts.
Other objects and further scope of the applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description to follow, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals.